The name Galatasaray comes from that of Galatasaray High School, which in turn takes its name from Galata Sarayı Enderûn-u Hümâyûn (Galata Palace Imperial School), the name of the original school founded on the site in 1481. This originates its name from the nearby medieval Genoese citadel of Galata. Galatasaray translates directly as 'Galata Palace'.[11]

The club's first match was against Cadi Keuy FRC and Galatasaray won this game with a score of 2–0.[13] There were discussions about the club's name, in which some suggested Gloria (victory) and others Audace (courage), but it was decided that its name would be Galatasaray.[14]

According to researcher Cem Atabeyoğlu, Galatasaray took its name from one of its first matches. In that match, Galatasaray won 2–0 over Rûm club and the spectators called them "Galata Sarayı Efendileri" (in English: Gentlemen of Galata (City) Palace), and, after this event, they adopted that name and started to call their club "GalataSaray". In 1905, during the era of the Ottoman Empire, there were no laws for associations so the club could not be registered officially, but, after the 1912 Law of Association, the club registered legally.[15]

“

Our aim is to play together, to have a color and a name and to beat the teams outside of Turkey.

Among with the founder Ali Sami Yen, the co-founders were the ones who were keen to do this sport, such as Asim Tevfik Sonumut, Reşat Şirvani, Cevdet Kalpakçıoğlu, Abidin Daver and Kamil.[11]

At first, the colors of the Galatasaray Sports Club were red and white. These are the colors in Turkish flag. However, Turkish Republic was not founded at that time. Therefore, this inspiration caused repressive administration of the day feel uncomfortable and the administration hounded the footballers. For this reason, the colors were changed to yellow and dark blue till 1907. In 1908, new colors were chosen as red and yellow. Ali Sami Yen stated, "We were imagining brightness of yellow - red fire over our team and thinking that it would carry us from one victory to another."[15]

While the football in Turkey began to fully develop, Galatasaray won ten more Istanbul League titles[citation needed], six Sunday League titles[citation needed] and three Friday League titles until 1952[citation needed]. Upon recognition of professional football in 1952, the first professional but non-national league of Turkey, Istanbul Professional League played between 1952 and 1959. Galatasaray won three of these seven titles.[citation needed]

Turkcell Super League formed in 1959. This is the top-flight professional league in Turkish nationwide football, and the most popular sporting competition in the country. Galatasaray joined all seasons and won 19 league titles since then.[16]

The Turkish Football Federation started to organize "Turkish Cup" (today it is organized with the name Ziraat Turkish Cup) in the 1962–63 season for Turkish clubs to qualify for the UEFA competitions. This is the only national cup competition in Turkey. Galatasaray joined all seasons and won 14 trophies since then.[17]

Galatasaray's first emblem was a figure of a spread-winged eagle with a football in its beak, drawn by 333 (Galatasaray High School student number) Şevki Ege. This was replaced in 1925 by the current “Ghayn-Sin” crest, designed by Ayetullah Emin.[18]

Galatasaray wore red and white colours when founded, then played in dark yellow and dark blue during the 1907–1908 season.

For a match against the football team of the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Barham's crewmen, played on 8 December 1908, Galatasaray finally settled on playing in red and yellow.

Ali Sami Yen, the main founder of Galatasaray, wrote the following in his diaries:

“Our goalkeeper Asım Tevfik, left-forwarder Emin Bülent and right midfielder Ali Sami Yen were commissioned for the task of determining the new team colours. After we had been in and out of several shops, we saw two different elegant-looking wool materials in Fat Yanko’s store at Bahçekapısı (between Eminönü and Sirkeci in Istanbul, now called Bahçekapı). One of them was quite dark red, resembling the cherry colour, and the other a rich yellow with a touch of orange. When the sales clerk made the two fabrics fly together with a twist of his hand they became so bright that it reminded us of the beauty of a goldfinch. We thought we were looking at the colours flickering in burning fire. We were picturing the yellow-red flames shining on our team and dreaming that it would take us to victories. Indeed it did.”

Galatasaray played during its first years in different fields, since there were not any stadiums in Istanbul. In 1921, the first stadium, Taksim Stadium opened.[22] Galatasaray played there until 1940. When the historic Taksim Stadium was demolished, Galatasaray decided to build a large, modern stadium. Due to difficulties stemming from World War II, construction was delayed for over two decades. In this period, they played in İnönü Stadium.

On 20 December 1964, Ali Sami Yen Stadium opened.[23] It is named after the founder of the club, Ali Sami Yen. It is in the Mecidiyeköy quarter of the Şişli district at the center of the city. In 1964, the stadium had a capacity of over 35,000. Today, due to improvements in security and prohibition of standing spectators, it has an all-seater capacity of 24,990. The nickname of the stadium is "Hell".[24]

After 2002, when Atatürk Olympic Stadium was built for Istanbul's Olympic Games bid, Galatasaray started to play European Cup matches there. The attendance record for a Turkish stadium was broken there, in a Galatasaray–Olympiacos match played in front of 79,414 spectators. But the Ali Sami Yen Stadium has historic importance for Galatasaray fans although it is smaller and older.[25]

The new Türk Telekom Arena stadium was built for Galatasaray in return for the highly valued land of the historic Ali Sami Yen stadium in Mecidiyekoy, and will be the new home ground for Galatasaray S.K., replacing the old Ali Sami Yen Stadium. The new stadium has a capacity of 52,695 seats.

Since 1998, after every goal scored by Galatasaray, the last part of the song I Will Survive by the Hermes House Band is played. Although the song is in English and already adopted by Dutch football team Feyenoord, the part used has no lyrics except "la la la la". This makes it easy for fans to participate.

In addition, before every game the Florida State Seminoles' War chant is played accompanied by what the fans call a "scarf show", where fans display and wave their Galatasaray scarves.[26]